Report on Baltimore Antiquarian Book Fair

Thursday was the busiest day when dealers hunkered down in their booths writing sales receipts to the serious collectors and dealers. There was a crowd waiting to get in as soon as the doors opened and they hurried to their favorite booths. One fellow scouted every booth, sometimes stopping to put books aside, then continued his quest until later in the day he left with two carts that carried boxes of books. Unfortunately he didn't buy anything from me, but sales were brisk throughout the day and well into the evening.

Any book show has ways to prevent people from leaving with unpaid merchandise. The Baltimore Show is no exception. Each sale must be accompanied by a sales receipt and "pass out" form to get out the door. The running joke among the dealers was, "Don't pass out in front of my booth."

During the lulls in traffic I took the opportunity to browse around the book area. One stop I made was at Ian Kahn's Lux Mentis where I found several books I would readily add to my library. Apparently other people felt the same because Ian reported good sales. Two spectacular items were on display. One dated 1779 listed and explained the prosecution's charges against Benedict Arnold for "illegal and oppressive conduct." The second was Rockwell Kent's Candide Maquette, hand colored by the artist.

Further down the same aisle Bauman's reported a very good show with excellent pre-show buying and sales. The next aisle over, Kenneth Mallory from Decatur, Georgia, a first time exhibitor, reported good sales as did his neighbor Julia Jordan of Four Winds Fine Books. And just around the corner at Tom Congalton's booth, Between the Covers, you could find an inscribed copy of Hart Crane's The Bridge.

By 6:00 pm on Sunday the 4th, the show was over. A little weary, everyone immediately started packing, and as soon as the restaurant was removed, vehicles could again move in for loading. As with the move-in the move-out was well organized, although Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island Book Company reported in his blog that irregularities occurred at the exits when dealers who had packed up quickly tried to depart the building before the carpets were rolled up, and were prevented from doing so. The Palm Beach Show Group is very particular about its carpets, and within an hour they were rolled up and books and shelving started to spill out of booths into the aisles, packed into vans and cars and out the door. It took me three hours to pack my booth, dismantle the shelving and move out. I was one of the last book dealers to leave as trucks and cars started to roll by what was my booth into the maze of aisles deep in the convention center.

The Palm Beach show group reported a high volume of traffic and "booming" retail and trade business. I think the sales among the antique dealers dwarfed the sales of the book dealers with one antique dealer reporting a sale of $1.3 million for one vase. And then there was Jim Alterman of Jim's of Lambertville, who bought an entire booth of sculpture including two Rodin pieces, a sculpture by Emile Gauguin, and a very rare Leo Laporte-Blairsy Art Nouveau lamp. I did hear about a similar incident in the antiquarian book trade when a collector bought an entire collection of books about golf from one booth, but that was not at this show.

With a return rate of over 90% of the dealers the Palm Beach Show Group must be doing something right. Next year the event takes place August 25th-28th, during the weekend before Labor Day at the same location.

A complete list of the book dealers and antique dealers can still be found on the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show website. Click here. Unfortunately the dealers are not divided by antique and book dealers, and the list is not searchable. The pocket-sized Show Guide for attendees was helpful with an alphabetical list of dealers, booth numbers and a map. Perhaps a compass should be provided too.

Michael Osborne is the proprietor of Michael J. Osborne Books LLC. He has been a participant and observer of the antiquarian book market for the past thirty years. Osborne has a graduate degree in library science and was a practicing librarian for academic and special libraries, as well as the state of Maryland. He attended the Out-of-Print and Antiquarian Book market Seminar in Colorado in 1999.

You may reach Michael Osborne at michaeljosbornebooks@verizon.net. His website is located at http://www.michaeljosbornebooks.com/.

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Report on Baltimore Antiquarian Book Fair

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